Phoenix

Be-kind-rewrite’sInspiration Monday nudged my muse in a terribly melodramatic way. Apologies in advance for the levels of angst, but the prompt was “can’t stop crying” so it was bound to be either angsty or filled with onions.

In the Center is a thing that weeps. In the darkness surrounding her now, her feathers and her tears are light. Her children return when their fires burn out. It’s over their corpses she weeps, folding them beneath her wings like eggs.

And there, against the mother flame, their life returns only for them to leave again; flying off into the void, bringing heat and light, but leaving her in the Center with her tears.

We have light and life because she can’t stop crying. Yet I have to wonder if one day we will learn the meaning of life without pain.

In part, I agree. Pain contrasts with other emotions, and maybe it can help us put our experiences in context. However, I have come to think it is a fallacy to assume that joy, and our other experiences, need pain to put them into context. Just because we cannot, at present, experience a full life without pain, does not mean that it was always so, or will always be so.

I think that emotional pain, like physical pain, is a warning that something is wrong. If I am right (a big “if,” I know) then the existence of pain has nothing to do with the vitality of our other experiences. I don’t get more pleasure out of petting my cat because I know what it feels like to burn my hand. The contrast is only incidental. The more I learn about being in the present, the more I believe that life can exist, with all its vividness intact, without pain. For clarity’s sake, though, my speculation only applies to all of existence. I agree with you as far as this life goes. ;)

There’s definitely such a thing as too much angst, but it’s good in moderation. ;) I’m glad you enjoyed! Phoenix is a long-standing part of the mythologies of my stories. She has a story of her own, and this is something of a riff on that story. I was hoping there was just enough imagery to give an image without overloading.

A lovely piece, Jubilare. I’m a big fan of the Phoenix mythos. The story didn’t strike me as angst, it actually rather reminded me of Japanese literature that dichotomy of beauty and sorrow. Thank you for sharing it!